Graphic design is much more than just coming up with a design and being “creative”. It is about understanding why and how certain images work and is fundamental to all of the visual arts. . Understanding what you are doing is the key, rather than the usual hit and miss. We can think of this as “drawing attention”.

The following image shows that there is nowhere for our eyes to rest, when we look at an image our eyes do not follow through smoothly but instead flicker between fixation points. The image below if anything presents our brains with confusion as our eyes cannot find somewhere to rest. The central large dot is noticed first and then we scan back and forth from one dot to another.

Asymetrical Dots

With an understanding of what is happening we can start to control what we want the viewer to see – and how we want them to see it. In the next image we deliberately guide the viewer to the right. With the eye tending to rest on the largest dot. What happens now is almost a looping, our brains scan from left to right in an almost circular motion. This is in part due to the symmetry of the ascending sizes of the dots.

Symetrical Dots

By removing the symmetry we can again deliberately lead the eye to exactly where we want to go, and also take advantage of innate left right scanning in the next image. Keep in mind that there is a cultural aspect to this, for example a design aimed at an Arabic market would be better served by flipping the image horizontally. Why? In western cultures especially we are taught through reading to scan from left to right.

Off center Dots

This final sequence of dots being assymetrical has led our eye to the largest dot at the right by getting your attention with a mid sized dot and through the small dot pointing you in the direction – and dot – we wanted you to be looking at.

Note there is a lot of psychology in this, it will not apply to everyone (we are all different) but we can aim at a majority of viewers. Once we understand the general idea we can expand on it and start deliberately leading the viewer to exactly those parts of the scene we want them to go.

Some of the great artists and designers seem to have been able to achieve this intuitively, although like most things, a sound understanding of the underlying principles cannot be avoided.

And whoever thought three dots could be so interesting?